Here we go guys! It's after 11:00 and somehow, after waiting all year for turkey season, here I am getting my stuff together. There's a 50% chance of rain all morning so I'm ditching the vest and going with my chest rig. I've been out twice and have yet to hear a turkey. I went out last Friday morning to listen, and Saturday I took my son on the youth hunt. We hiked about 2.5 of some beautiful creek bottoms. I'm going in blind tomorrow. I know they came in and select cut an area last summer because I saw it from a distance during deer season. I think I'm going to head in there to get away from the crowds and see if I can find some birds. I'd love to stay dry and hear a gobble. If we get to converse that would be even better and to pull the trigger on another opener would be amazing. I'll report back tomorrow. Good luck to everyone else.
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Best of luck bud
So far it's just been me being surrounded by other hunters. I have heard some gobbles at least.
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Good luck brother!!
Quote from: turkey harvester on April 09, 2023, 07:43:20 PM
Good luck brother!!
It looks like I'm going to need it. I know it was the opener but my gosh. The pressure was really effecting me yesterday. I sat down to a gobbler and four hens flew off. Later I figured there was a guy up above me that flushed the birds. Another truck parked fifty yards down the road from me for ten minutes then closes their door drives down another fifty and parks! Later I moved and had two guys walk past me then I push further in and I walk past someone. I was really discouraged. I feel like there's not enough acreage on this WMA for the people to spread out. If you go in 1-2 miles your getting close to other roads. It wasn't this way not too long ago. I hope the pressure will drop off in the middle of the week at least.
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Good luck and keep at it. Perseverance will eventually prevail.
Quote from: aclawrence on April 08, 2023, 12:04:15 PM
So far it's just been me being surrounded by other hunters. I have heard some gobbles at least.
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already had a person kill one in front of me both days here
Well Monday morning cant get here fast enough. Took off opening morning hopng to get one on the board. Subs are scarce so its hard to take off when I want too. Got 3 weeks to try and get something done.
I'm back out for my second hunt this morning 4/14. Still trucks everywhere even in a Friday. I didn't hear anything at the first spot but randomly pulled over in another area and heard a gobble from the truck. Long story short, lots of maneuvering, finally got on the same ridge with him here roosted. He gobbled then went silent, in the mean time a hen is 50yards from me clucking away and he is not making a peep. I'm playing the patience game at the moment.
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I'm heading back out in the morning for my third hunt. On my last hunt I ended up finding two gobblers and one was way back off the road from the access. I'll probably start there in the morning and see what happens. I'm hoping for less people pressure on a Tuesday.
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Good luck ac! I'm heading to north Georgia for a long weekend trip since the weather is going to be rough here at home. Hoping to at least learn a little for the future but I sure wouldn't complain about getting a shot at one
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I found two more birds this morning. I feel like I may have spooked the first bird. He would not answer any of my calls and there was another bird firing away so I got up on my knees to gather my stuff and thought I heard a few steps. I had to leave early today but luckily the second bird was deep into the middle of a public section so hopefully he'll survive the weekend and be ready for me on Tuesday! The pressure wasn't near as bad as last Friday. I think we're hitting that mid season lull in people pressure hopefully.
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You'll get em, good things will happen
I'm going back in after them again in the morning. My brother went today and heard one bird gobble twice. He got set up and did a couple soft calls but the bird never gobbled again. The birds are tight lipped once you start calling to them. I'm going after the bird I found further in last Friday. I hope he's still hanging around in there. The reports I heard from the weekend were people didn't hear much gobbling so maybe no one messed with him. After tomorrow I'm going to pick up and hit another area I had some success in last year.
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Well I got dang close this morning but no cigar. I stopped in a field on the way in to listen. A bird gobbled down in the bottom. I snuck down in the bottom and got a nice set up. I did a fly down with my hat and just a few soft calls. He flew down and hung out about 100yds up the bottom from me where he roosted. This is the part that hurts my feelings. He went up to that field, which is right by the gravel road, (one of those spots you see a truck sitting at and roll your eyes because you know a turkey will never be in that field beside the road on public land) and gobbled and and gobbled. I get fairly close back to the field. He sounds like he's almost in shotgun range but there's a wall of green trees and bushes between us. Finally a truck comes down the road and stops and starts calling. The end. I heard some turkeys walking back down towards the bottom where I was but never caught back up with them.
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I went out this morning 4/28. It was really muggy and wet, and cloudy. I didn't talk to anyone that heard a gobble in my area today. I'm taking my son to some private land tomorrow. It will be nice to take a break from where I've been hunting. Hopefully I can get him in front of a Tennessee gobbler.
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Quote from: aclawrence on April 28, 2023, 05:44:46 PM
I went out this morning 4/28. It was really muggy and wet, and cloudy. I didn't talk to anyone that heard a gobble in my area today. I'm taking my son to some private land tomorrow. It will be nice to take a break from where I've been hunting. Hopefully I can get him in front of a Tennessee gobbler.
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Best of luck to both of you.
Good luck brother!
My son and I had an excellent hunt. We slept in my brothers "barn" (think wedding venue, high end horse barn) and woke up at 5:00 the next morning. We get ready and he goes out to the cooler in the truck to get a granola bar. He comes back and tells me he heard a gobble. The hunt is on! Long story short we ended up getting on a group of gobblers that must have gobbled a hundred times. We came up from the back side of a saddle onto a big horseshoe type feature. The birds were all the way into the bottom on the next landowners place. We set up on the right side. It was a great set up. Unfortunately when the birds finally came up they came up on the left side. We ended up sneaking back out and setting up on the left side. One gobbler got really fired up. He was just across the line in the neighbors pasture and of course there was an old barn wire fence and he wouldn't come across. We got to here some up close gobbling. In the meantime we saw a world record size fox squirrel that could care less about us sitting about ten steps away from his log he liked. We also saw lots of deer and a millipede that must have been 7" long. It was nice to hunt on some private land after the luck I've been having on public. At the end of the day it was still property lines that sealed our fate. We're definitely going to head out and trying it again. I'm pretty encouraged since I haven't heard hardly any birds out there the last couple years. I'm not throwing in the towel myself yet either. I can't let the team down!
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I went out yesterday 5/2 to a different WMA. We killed some birds there last year and I hadn't been back this spring. I heard one bird gobble three times. I finally got an idea where he was at and snuck over and waited for about an hour and a half for him to gobble again, which he never did. That was my hunt from yesterday lol. I'll probably try again Thursday and Friday morning but they may be shorter hunts. My time is running out. The good news is I've heard gobblers every hunt except once so turkeys are surviving the pressure. Unfortunately they don't respond positively to calling.
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I got in another hunt this morning 5/5. It rained lightly most of the morning. I heard zero gobbles today. I did flush a hen off her nest. Hopefully she'll come back and raise us ten more little turkeys. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230505/34b8f94db876e5182a3376499f2b8e4b.jpg)
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Stay at it. It can change for the better in a few seconds
Keep at it bud. Has been slow here, only one i have seen display was opening morning and then little gobbling since then. I will not have the truck the next 2 days but when I get back I will be the only person hunting 93 acres so it should be fun.
Quote from: Sir-diealot on May 08, 2023, 10:36:31 PM
Keep at it bud. Has been slow here, only one i have seen display was opening morning and then little gobbling since then. I will not have the truck the next 2 days but when I get back I will be the only person hunting 93 acres so it should be fun.
Good luck Steve. Hope you get one.
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Well i hate to see it go, but my season is done. I was fortunate enough to be part of 4 birds harvested this spring. It was a roller coaster season for sure. Missouri is definitely in a turkey shortage in spots and apparently decent in others. I talked to some buddies of mine that never heard a gobble all season in multiple spots. Maybe when I retire in 3 years I can try to keep hunting other states possibly and keep going. Good luck to the ones still after em..
Quote from: turkey harvester on May 10, 2023, 08:54:58 AM
Well i hate to see it go, but my season is done. I was fortunate enough to be part of 4 birds harvested this spring. It was a roller coaster season for sure. Missouri is definitely in a turkey shortage in spots and apparently decent in others. I talked to some buddies of mine that never heard a gobble all season in multiple spots. Maybe when I retire in 3 years I can try to keep hunting other states possibly and keep going. Good luck to the ones still after em..
Alabama is over for me. I struck out in Bama this year for the first time in a while. I'm planning to make a couple trips to Tennessee before it runs out and that will be it for me.
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Here's a quick version of the hunt for my TN bird on 5/15/23. I hunted on the same private land I carried my son to a while back. We heard several gobblers on that trip so I was optimistic. I got there and decided to go ahead and walk straight into the same area. The property is similar to a horseshoe shape and the two sides are really high ridges. I went to the right side and finally heard a gobbler at 5:49. Unfortunately there wasn't any gobbling on the side I climbed up to. My brother hadn't gotten to do any bush hogging because of a broken part so the grass is really tall in the bottom and hillsides. It's also soaking wet from rain the night before. My gaiters were doing there job but the grass came up to my waist almost so my pants got soaked and water was running down my leg inside my gaiters lol. Anyway I climb down and eventually end up on top of the hill on the left side. The bird is across the property line out in a pastor. I was afraid that would happen. There was one area up on top of the hill that had been disced up. I figured the gobbler knew the clear area was there so maybe there was a small chance he would come over to me. He was very receptive to the calls and would answer me back. I finally decided to get up and just walk around and call all over the cleared area and I guess he liked it. He finally broke and came the couple hundred yards down to where I was at. Unfortunately he would not cross the fence and come over to me. Eventually he walked back the direction he came from. I crawled up to a briar patch and got my eyes on him out in the pasture. I decide it's over and walk over to the fence and realize he walked all the way to the corner of the property where it makes a L. I yelp on my trumpet and he gobbled immediately. I decided to get the heck out of there because I know he's going to walk right back to where he was and tempt me with all kind of bad thoughts about shooting him across the fence lol. I end up making my way down past the corner and move over into the woods on the side of a hill calling to the bird from a new angle. I started to cut and yelp on my crystal pot and he was tearing it up. It was just a few more minutes and he decided he couldn't resist me anymore and made a fatal decision to get in front of my shotgun. I pulled the trigger about 11:10. Man it was nice to finally be able to have a conversation with a turkey and put my hands on one. It wasn't an easy hunt but I didn't have anyone else coming in on me and screwing it up. The bird hadn't been pressured all season long. If I could have sat across the fence it would have been over quickly. It's a great example of you still have to be where the turkey wants to be. Our team is super close in our OG turkey competition so I hope to be able to go back to another farm and upgrade this bird for our total score. There are some big birds out there! I've got one more tag to try and fill let's go Strut Stoppers!
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(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230518/ce3b4c92e8ecc7de8437f6001510e6fe.jpg)
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